biography
| name: |
Méhul, Etienne Nicolas
|
pronunciation:
[mayül]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1763–1817)
|
| biography:
| Composer, born in Givet, NE France. He studied the organ before going to Paris c.1778. A great symphonist between Gossec and Berlioz, he was better known in his day for his 30 comic operas, the first of which, Euphrosine (1790), would be performed for 40 years. He was nominated to the Institut National de Musique in 1793 and participated in the foundation of the Conservatoire. ‘Le Chant du Départ’ remains the most famous of his ‘civic’ compositions; Joseph (1807) is the last of his operas whose subject-matter demonstrated republican messages and whose musical atmosphere foreshadowed Romanticism. Disappointed by the lack of public interest in his overlong works, he turned to symphonic writing and composed romances. Elected to the Institut de France, he received the Légion d'Honneur and barely survived the Empire. |
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